Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Banana-Cake-Bread-Arm-Workout and How Not to Clean Your Phone

Each morning when I get up, I am blown away by the date on the calendar. What is happening?! I swear, when I was a kid, days were at least 48 hrs long and there were no less than 60 days in a month.

Anyhow, an incredibly helpful tip from me to you, because I am now an expert in this.
If you want to clean your iPhone, rinsing it in the sink is not the solution.

I have tried to do that a couple of days ago and it didn't work well. Luckily, we had the best quality 0.49 Euro Aldi rice at home and once my phone spent a few hours in a bed of grains, everything was well and fully functional again. The phone, too. (I know, most hilarious joke ever.)

I save lives.

So if you ever want to give it a try and wash your phone, make sure to dump it in rice right after to make sure it dries up nicely. (According to Nick, "Minute Rice" works even better - I have yet to try that and will get back to you once I did that.)

Over the past few days, I have turned all sorts of housewifey.
No, I have no idea what's happening. I have made dinner twice in a row and today was my first time baking a "cake" since we came to Berlin. Most disturbing about this is that the dinner was not frozen pizza. It was actual dinner. From scratch! With vegetables, and meat, and salad, and all!

We don't have a mixer. Our kitchenaid is in storage, 86 gazillion miles from here. So, all I have to mix and stir things are a fork and a whisk.

Banana bread in a cake pan:

First, you throw 2 cups of flour and each 1 teaspoon of baking soda and baking powder in a bowl. (I only had baking powder it worked just fine.)
You should sift these dry ingredients. I didn't, but I am sure there is a good reason why every cake recipe tells you to do it. If you like cinnamon in your banana-cake-bread, you can add .5-1 teaspoon to this dry mixture.

This is what it looks like when I do it. All lumpy.

Then, you crack 2 eggs into a bowl, add 1 cup of sugar, and 1/2 a cup of oil and beat this mixture with a whisk a fast as you can.

I have to mention something: I found a conversion chart that helps you "translate" cups into grams. Unfortunately, I can't read numbers well enough, and while I used the correct amount of flour (280g), I put in only about half of the actual amount of sugar. According to this website, 1 cup should have been 200g of sugar, but I only used 120g. I just went with the "dry goods" table, but there is actually a "granulated sugar" chart. The more you know...

It should have little bubbles and a creamy eggnog-color

However, the 3 bananas I used were both large and over ripe. So they added quite an amount of sweetness. If you want, I am sure you can just cut out some of the sugar anyways. (aka, if you screw something up, just make it the rule.)

3 bananas mashed with a fork.

Then, you add 3-4 mashed bananas to the sugar-oil-egg-mix and blend everything together. If you like (and have it at home), this would be the perfect time to add some vanilla (about 1-1.5 tablespoons).

Now, you can already add your dry flour-baking soda-baking powder(-cinnamon)-mix. It will get really hard to mix everything at once, if you only use a whisk. Plus, if you do this, you might end up with some ugly flour lumps that will not be so delicious when you bite into them after you baked the whole thing.
So, I added the flour-mix in about 4 portions.

This is what it looks like after everything is added.
My pictures, again, are pale and don't look great, but I assure you that in person, it looked more yellow and like actual batter.

Then, you pour the whole thing into a pan. It really doesn't matter what shape the pan it is. I have made this recipe in a bread pan, or a muffin pan before, but right now, I only have a "Topfkuchen Form"-pan. So I used this.

I double checked a few times and 350 degrees fahrenheit are about 175 degrees celsius. For those with an electric oven: I used "Ober-/ Unterhitze"(top and bottom heat), not "Umluft"(circulating air). If you have an oven that runs with gas, don't worry about these settings.

Watch your creation with caution.

Once it looks somewhat edible: take it out. (use oven mitts!)

After you took it out, you have to be really strong to not start eating it right out of the pan. Best thing to do is to leave the room or house and return, once it has cooled down completely.

Image

This is me

Hello and welcome to Stina On The Move! My name is Christina and I am an aspiring runner, who just moved to Berlin.
Originally, I am from Germany, but I met my husband in the US, where we lived in Maryland for a few years. Life has taken us to several places and we love to explore everything close and far from us. We have a dog, Lucy, who moved with us and is keeping us company.
My blog is about running, food, living in a new place, and randomness along the way.
I am always happy to meet new people, so feel free to email me!